Activist Haroon Gunn-Salie's Marikana sculpture comes home after world tour

Artist and activist Haroon Gunn-Salie’s riveting work, Senzenina, is on display at the prestigious Norval Foundation in Tokai. Photo: Luke de Kock / Courtesy of Norval Foundation

Artist and activist Haroon Gunn-Salie’s riveting work, Senzenina, is on display at the prestigious Norval Foundation in Tokai. Photo: Luke de Kock / Courtesy of Norval Foundation

Published Aug 29, 2019

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Cape Town – Senzenina? (What have we done?)

A sculpture installation by artist and activist Haroon Gunn-Salie that has travelled the world is home for the first time and is on display at the Norval Foundation’s sculpture garden in Tokai.

The sculpture depicts the ghosts of striking Marikana mineworkers who were killed during the 2012 massacre.

The mineworkers in the installation are crouched on the ground, appearing vulnerable, before being fired on by the police.

Thirty-four mineworkers were killed and at least 78 were wounded on August 16, 2012.

Gunn-Salie uses this dramatic imagery to reveal where memory has fallen short.

“I am glad to bring the work home after the journey it’s had.

“The work premiered at the New Museum in New York.

“After New York it travelled to London where it was displayed publicly in London’s Regent’s Park. It had an immense audience,” he said.

The piece was installed in the Norval Foundation’s sculpture garden ahead of the Marikana commemoration earlier this month, and it will be available to view until October next year.

“I have been working on a full exhibition to bring my work home to Cape Town.

“I moved to Johannesburg six years ago and I was practising there, then four years ago my work took a global turn.”

Senzenina is part of an ongoing triangulated project between South Africa, Brazil and the UK into the consequences and effects of mining.

Norval Foundation spokesperson Luke de Kock said: “The Norval Foundation is dedicated to working with emerging and established practitioners, who build upon the influences of one another, and who expand the narratives and conversations that are important to the country, and the continent.

“We believe contemporary artists work within a larger social and political context, and that by hosting works such as Senzenina, we are able to create conversations and spark dialogues that push us forward, bring us closer together, and contribute to an enriched understanding and appreciation of each other’s diverse backgrounds and stories.”

The Norval Foundation sculpture garden features permanent and temporary art works that are installed throughout the indigenous wetland environment.

Gunn-Salie said that a public exhibition spanning his practice would be staged at multiple venues around Cape Town over the next six months.

Next in the chain will be a site-specific installation at the Castle of Good Hope. The Norval Foundation art museum and sculpture garden is located at 4Steenberg Road, Tokai.

Admission fees to the museum are R180 or R350 for membership for a year, but admission to the sculpture garden is free. There is also free admission every first Thursday of the month.

Cape Times

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